Jefferys Track Side Diner for April, 2022

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi everyone!

Here we are at the end of the month once again and it is time to move the Diner. We had two suggestions for the location. One was from David (NorthBrit) who thought it would be nice to follow some vacation trains, and the other was from me. I suggested that we visit the Chicago Union stock yards.

The majority of the votes were in favour of doing stock yards, or livestock handling in general, so that is where we find ourselves on April 1st. We will do vacation trains in May when the weather is nicer.

For those who are not familiar with the Diner, here is how it works:

As is our custom, we include a list of fallen modelers who have made great contributions to the hobby and the forums:

Please share what you know about stock operations. We are not restricting the discussion to just the Chicago Union Yards. If something pooped in a pen, then it counts![swg][+o(] Obviously, as far as railways are concerned, most of that will be past history, but no matter. It will be interesting none the less. Also, please share pictures of your fleets of stock cars in action!

I look forward to your contributions.

Cheers!!

Dave

2

Thanks for moving the Diner Dave.

Let me get everyone a drink:

-Photograph by Kevin Parson

Shock Top Twisted Pretzel is a salty and toasty brew that is good for a change.

I don’t know much about stockyards, and I have never modeled their operations, so I am looking forward to an interesting month of new knowledge.

-Kevin

3

I was gone for a while, so I may have missed something …

Bear hasn’t posted in a while. Has anyone heard from him?

4

Hi Everyone,

Dave had mentioned in the March diner about cattle ranch logistics. Well, on cattle ranches there’s not too much in the way of logistics as we commonly think of it. About the most logistical thing they do is truck in hay from wherever available For winter feeding. The area around El Centro, CA grows lots of hay shipped east to ranches.
Ranches traditionally have large acreages for grazing. Example, the King ranch in southern Texas takes up an entire county. The major concerns are water and grass (feed) and about in that order. Of course, this doesn’t cover it all by a long shot, but that should give a thumbnail.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think many of these operations use rail as a primary point of shipping anymore. If you’re out on country two lane highways, every once in a while you’ll come across small cattle pens out in nowhere. They put small herds into trucks to take to market.

5

Thank you for the seamless move of the Diner, Dave [Y][bow]

How can it be April already!! ?? Well, OK, that’s one of those imponderables!

To us bipeds we might think this was the entrance to a grand amusement park!

Chicago_Stock-Entrance by Edmund, on Flickr

Those with four hooves might disagree. Thheir exit looks a little different [dinner]

Chicago_Stock-Exchange by Edmund, on Flickr

The place was vast, encompassing some 375 acres. As one might surmise back in the day, it was railroad money (Vanderbilt) behind the venture.

Union Station — Union Stockyards both owned by railroads [:-^]

Just an amazing complex. There was a separate branch of the Chicago Elevated that served the stockyards with no less than eight stations along that line that served the Yards.

Where’s The Beef?

Cheers, Ed

6

One of the reasons that I suggested visiting stock yards is it gives me the opportunity to brag about some of my favourite rolling stock. A few years ago I bought four Star Line kits on eBay. Star Line produced kits in the late 1940s. These kits were assembled, and whomever did the work was quite good at it. Everything was straight and there was absolutely no excess glue anywhere.

They weren’t perfect. There was some damage to the car bodies, and the trucks were prevented from pivoting enough by the under body details. Both were easy to fix, although I confess to using styrene to replace the broken boards.

I painted and lettered them for the Algoma Eastern Railway in typical Canadian Pacific colours. They came out quite well IMHO.

I will have a small stockyard on my layout simply to justify the stock cars’ presence, and I have 10 or so other stock cars so I can make up a decent cattle train if I so choose.

Cheers!!

Dave

7

"Programs here ! Get Yer’ Programs here — "

Anyone need a little walking-around guide while we visit?

Chicago_Union-Stockyards by Edmund, on Flickr

This is reduced from a 277 MB. .tiff file at the Library of Congress. My first computer had a 100 MB. Hard drive (and THAT set me back almost $1000!)

Enjoy your walking tour [:-^] See the sausage being made [+o(]

Cheers, Ed

8

Dave,

Your old stock cars look great.

I built this one from an old Ambroid kit. I built it probably 20+ years ago. I plan to reletter it for the DAWDLE AND DELAY eventually.

-Photograph by Kevin Parson

I have just a handful of stock car models, all from unique kits.

The World Is A Beautiful Place.

-Photograph by Kevin Parson

-Kevin

9

Good morning Diners. A large coffee on the go, Flo.

A busy day ahead.

I do not know if anyone believes in things like this, but the story goes. –

A family member gave us a large mirror. I knew Dawn didn’t like it (neither did I), but Dawn accepted it and it was put it on the wall.

Within days Dawn was feeling all aches and pains. (Much more than usual.) She had great difficulty move her arms Days passed into weeks. Dawn was feeling worse. She sought help from a chiropracter.

A few days ago there was an unusual noise from where the mirror was. It had come off its hook and slid down the wall. A crack in the mirror. Out it went.

Almost immediately movement in her arms became easier. Now the movement is around 95% better.

Hope to see those MIA soon

David

10

11

Good morning

Thanks for opening the Diner Dave.

Don’t have any model stock cars and don’t know not much about the Chicago Stockyards yet.

So I’ll let one of my all-time favorite actors Sam do the talking this morning.

https://youtu.be/IlRbSMywTQg

TF

12

Cattle Cars… New York City Style…

13

I have not been well lately, so I visited the doctor.

He gave me some medicine. Told me to stay indoors and to combat boredom to finish of things in the house I had started.

Good advice I thought.

I finished of the Merlot, then the Chardonnay.

I finished of the Pinot Grigio and the Cava.

The Bells was next, then the Jash Dannyells.

Baylish, Bac–Bacardi, Shevash Rejal, the Jin.

And finally the Sccchhh-

mmmirrr-

Hasshhhy Moshhyllinn.

David

14

[bow] [(-D]

15

Good morning, diners. Bacon, eggs, and black coffee, please.

Jim, years ago I drove down to Harlingen, Texas. I had to drive across the King Ranch. Amazing! It was a huge place. Strangely enough, this is parked in my garage:

Ed, thanks for the photos of the Chicago Stockyards. What a place. I can’t imagine living next door to it.

Dave, thanks for the photos of the stock cars. That is something I don’t have on my layout.

Kevin, I hope you don’t mind, but I looked right past the photo of your stock car to look at the background. I’ve mentioned to you before that I really like that style of backdrop. It’s just light colored enough to fade into the background, but still gives the effect of depth.

David, I don’t know what to make of your mirror experience, but it sounds like it would make a good contribution to some ghost story TV program.

TF, that Sam Elliot commercial says it all about beef. Whenever I see him, I can’t help remembering him in several episodes of Parks and Recreation. Ron hated him – funny stuff.

Lion, NYC cattle cars – I know that some who live there still call them that.

One of the largest beef packing plants in the U.S. is about 50 miles from me. It’s a huge place, but there is very little in the way of stockyards.

Ranchers bring their cattle to feed lots located around the state where the animals are fed special diets. After a stay there, the cattle are transferred to the packing plant. The cattle are brought in by truck, and almost immediately the animals enter the building.

In this photo, the red outline is around the only part of the huge complex that is a 's

16

Thank you John.

That picture is actually a test-shot, and is one of the earliest efforts on my 30 by 30 photo diorama. The actual scene I composed was a bit different. That shot was a test of lighting and color balance. It was from when I was using 5200K bulps in alluminum reflectors positioned to brighten specific areas. Later I switched to photo-flouresents in soft box diffusers.

I used my I-GN stock car in the test shot, and that is the only picture I have of that model. It has a “real” roadname, so it did not show up in any of my “World Of Nonsense” images.

-Kevin

17

[dinner]…[(-D]

Sight of Beef

Side of Beef

Any questions? [swg]

TF

18

New York City even built secret cow tunnels to get the beasts from the train yard down to the meat district.

The High Line also went from the yards at 33rd street down to the meat district. It even passed through buildings in order to negotiate the turns necessary in the route.

Below is the new West Side Yard operated by the LIRR to store equipment between runs. (New Jersey Transit stores there equipment on Long Island–Go Figgure). The loop in the foregrownd is where the Old New York Central (Remember them) came down across the swing bridge at Spuyten Diuval and had their yard in this area. It lead out to the old 'high line". AMTK now uses that ling to bring trains into NYP from upstate NY.

19

Regarding My Photographs:

In a recent effort to clean up everything online, I deleted almost all of my images on Imgur, and re-assigned the originals in my computer files.

As a result… I have lost all track of which photos I have previously shared, and which ones I have not.

If I begin to seem redundant in Show Me Something and Weekend Photo Fun, that is not intentional. I have thousands of photographs, and my memory is not perfect.

-Kevin

20

Everyone is in Chicago while you’re still fiddling around in New York Lion.

So far this semester you have been absent from the Diner Community Field Trip 9 times.

https://youtu.be/npEsrzld3p8

In this model railroaders opinion you don’t set what I consider to be an exemplary attendance record[(-D]…[:-^]

That is some interesting information you posted that I never knew before though.

TF